Whoever sees him walking through the streets of Miami today, willing to "collaborate" and provide resources and training in Miami to the "Cuban opposition", to finance law firms to "defend" the "dissidents" on the Island, and – more recently – even “accompanying” businessmen from the archipelago, you might think that he is a good old man, a “peaceful” opponent of the socialist system.
However, he is nothing further from the truth. The hands of the "benefactor", as his closest collaborators call him, are stained with the innocent blood of his compatriots.
Santiago Álvarez Fernández-Magriñá was born in 1941, in Havana, Cuba. His father was secretary within the presidential cabinet, and senator during the government of Fulgencio Batista.
The character has organized a significant number of landings and infiltrations of terrorist commandos in the archipelago, and in the 1960s he participated in violent actions carried out along the southern coast of the area between Cienfuegos and Trinidad.
This "good man" dedicated much of his life to terrorism against Cuba, by supplying money to counterrevolutionary elements, through the so-called Legal Rescue Foundation and other organizations, and maintained close ties with the paramilitary formations Alpha 66 and l Commandos, based in South Florida, under the supervision of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Participant in the failed attack against Fidel in Panama, and in the illegal entry of Posada Carriles into the United States, he is considered the "best friend" and protector of this notorious terrorist leader, one of the worst murderers in the history of Cuba.
In 2005, the US authorities seized the largest illegal stash of war weapons ever reported in Florida, a crime for which he only served three years in prison. In that context, it was Santiago Álvarez Fernández-Magriñá who gave the Police 30 automatic machine guns, a rocket launcher, several grenades, 200 pounds of dynamite, 14 pounds of C-4 explosive, 4,000 feet of cable for detonations, etc.
On October 12, 1971, he participated in a terrorist attack against the town of Boca de Samá. The pirate assault claimed two lives and left four injured, including two girls, 15 and 13 years old, respectively.
Posada Carriles' best friend, in 2001, together with Castro Matos, prepared, carried out and directed an armed infiltration along the northern coast of the province of Villa Clara, an action in which Máximo Pradera, Ihosvanny Suriz and Santiago Padrón were arrested. who intended to sabotage tourist objectives, among them the Tropicana cabaret.
Álvarez Fernández-Magriñá was one of those who financed the purchase of weapons for that action, and violated Cuban jurisdictional waters when he brought, in his speedboat, the three terrorists, captured in April 2001.
Let us remember the video of the complaint presented by Cuban Television, on that date, when Ihosvanny, one of the terrorists, asked Santiago: "The other day, when you told me about Tropicana, do you want me to do something there?" ; to which he replied: «If you want to do that, better, it doesn't matter to me. There you enter through a window with a pair of latics, and that's the end, and it's less risky.
Regarding the terrorist boss, Fidel said, at the Convention Palace, on April 15, 2005: «Look at the story of the “prosperous” businessman, the “urban planning expert” and representative of Posada Carriles there in the United States. "No one can explain how that man can be loose over there."
Preserving memory is essential. We can never forget those who made their lives a great stain of blood and mud, and, in the service of a foreign power, brought pain and suffering to their compatriots.
There are names that cannot hide, behind the masks of influential "benefactors", the murderous character that moves them.